


I'd Talk Forever (Just to Make You Laugh)

by SpasticBookworm



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Christmas, Fluffy, M/M, Not Beta Read, Pre-Slash, Slice of Life, Thanksgiving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:00:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21957781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpasticBookworm/pseuds/SpasticBookworm
Summary: Eddie isn’t sure what he said that made Buck laugh, but he never wants to stop talking if it means his friend always laugh like that.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Christopher Diaz, Evan "Buck" Buckley & Eddie Diaz, Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 7
Kudos: 315





	I'd Talk Forever (Just to Make You Laugh)

_Eddie isn’t sure what he said that made Buck laugh, but he never wants to stop talking if it means his friend always laughs like that._

_Because he deserves to always be that happy._

_His head is thrown back, eyes are lite up. And the sound of his laugh draws people to him like a moth to a flame._

_And very much like a moth, if Eddie isn’t careful, Buck is very likely to burn him up._

_But here’s the secret: That’s okay. Eddie wants him to._

\---

It was a bad call. Some of them are, and Eddie knew that when he started his training. He was used to the horrors he saw on a battlefield. The horrors he saw in his own back yard hit worse.

The whole team is subdued, quiet and sad. The ride back to the station is spent in silence, their only reprieve from their thoughts the noise of the engine.

There’s blood on all their turnout kits, and Eddie swears he can see it on his hands too, even knowing he was in gloves the whole time.

They get back to the station and he heads straight to the showers. He feels like Lady Macbeth, trying to get blood off his hands that isn’t there.

Buck is waiting for him when he gets out, cell phone in hand. “Facetime Chris. You need to see him.”

Eddie takes the phone and Bucks wrist, brings both over to the locker room, closes the door. The glass will give them some privacy. He doesn’t say a word to his friend, just pushes him down gently onto the bench then sits close beside him. They’re touching from shoulder to boot. He raises the phone, dials Carla.

5 minutes later Chris has them smiling. He’s talking about dinosaurs and feathers, and Eddie makes a joke and suddenly Buck is laughing.

It was a bad call, but right now everything is good.

\---

Eddie decides to host Thanksgiving that year. The rotation worked out, with him having the day off, even if it means he’s working Christmas. He’s also working black Friday which, as much as he’s not looking forward to that, he also kind of is.

When he tells his abuela about his plans, she’s hesitant. It’s a big undertaking, the Diaz family Thanksgiving. His parents are flying out for it; his eldest sister hosted them last year with her family. Eddie had to work.

Isabel enlists his Tia Pepa and a few of his older cousins to help him, and Eddie enlists Buck.

He puts Buck in charge of the kids menu.

Buck attacks it with an enthusiasm that is, quite frankly, terrifying.

It all comes together in the end, though. The entirety of the west coast Diaz’s plus his parents, and the Buckley siblings.

Maddie charms his abuela almost as quickly as Buck did, and it must be something genetic. But Buck charms Eddies parents and all the kids. He even gets Christopher and all the cousins to eat more vegetables than any of their parents ever have. Eddie feels proud. His mother sends him a look that promises a long confessing talk after everyone leaves. Eddie is nearly looking forward to it. He wants them know, even if, at the moment, he thinks it’s all one sided.

It’s getting late and they’re passing around dessert and Eddie is telling everyone a story about the time Christopher found a mouse in the backyard and decided to hide it in his dresser where Eddie then found it and freaked out.

He’s not embarrassed to tell that story; it has Buck laughing so hard there’s tears in his eyes and Eddie’s heart flutters.

Maybe he’ll host Thanksgiving again next year, too.

\---

Good calls are what make this bearable. And this is a good call. They’re only on scene in case it turns into a bad one, and it never does. It’s still a horrible situation: A man with a gun is holding a bus of school children hostage. But he’s standing in the door way, and Buck and Eddie are just about to get the back door open to get the kids out when it all ends.

Athena talks the suspect down, gets the gun away from him, and then it’s just holding the scene until all the kids parents get called to pick them up. The man, the bus driver, goes into Athena's car crying about trying to protect the kids, not hurt them.

Eddie hopes he gets the help he needs, and turns to see Buck surrounded by small children.

His heart does a little flip, and he bets the smile on his face is telling.

He doesn’t care. He goes over to sit with Buck and the kids.

The end up letting the kids climb up in the ladder truck; Buck talks about all the different pieces of the truck, tells them the history of firefighters which Eddie is pretty sure isn’t even made up.

For his part, Eddie watches Buck with all the kids and doesn’t think his heart can grow any bigger. He rubs a hand over his chest and forces himself to look away and resolutely does not think about Buck as a dad. He thinks about that enough when his friend spends time with Christopher.

After they’re all back at the station, Buck is on dish duty, since he was late for breakfast at the start of shift. Eddie offers to help him; they share washing up when they have dinner together anyway.

Buck hands him a frying pan. “Do you think we can convince the team to take a family photo for a Christmas card this year?”

Eddie thinks about it as he dries the pan but a better idea forms in his head.

“Or,” he counters, “We can use that picture of figure skaing Bobby...”

Buck laughs, and Eddie feels butterflies in his stomach.

Bobby might kill them, but if it means Buck’s laughing like that? That’s a worthy death.

\---

He tries not to think how sad Christopher is about not spending Christmas together.

Not thinking about that, though, has him thinking about how his heart felt when Chris asked to spend the holiday with Buck instead of his abuela and all his cousins. And how his heart is feeling is equal parts heartbroken and full of love for the bond those two share.

Buck looks just as sad as Chris as he explains he’s working too. That almost makes Eddie feel worse, if that’s even possible.

Three broken hearts for the price of saving lives.

Sometimes he wonders if it’s worth it, the job.

Then during their next shift, they save a woman’s life and he’s reminded that it is.

It still doesn’t make the pain of it hurt less. He hopes it subsides, at least a little. He knows it wont.

On Christmas, he’s proven right. The pain is still there in full force.

It only dissipates when he realizes, later, what Buck did.

He gave them all Christmas with their families. Eddie looks over his sons’ shoulder to where Buck is standing, smiling and looking at peace, like he’s staring at the only things in the world that matters.

Eddie knows exactly how that feels.

He hugs his son again and wants to cry, he’s so happy. But he settles for hugging his abuela next, who tells him Buck called her after he left Eddies house that day they made gingerbread houses and asked her if she could bring Christopher to the station on Christmas day for dinner. She tells him how Buck came over the next night, straight off his shift and started planning, how Sergent Grant came over with him to help every day they could.

“You have a sweet one, _nieto_. Don’t let him go.” Eddie feels heat spread across his face but doesn’t deny it. His heart and his mind are done with any sort of denial he might have had in the past, even as he realizes it hasn’t been denying it for a while.

Later, they’re all standing behind the table for a group photo. Buck stands with the Diaz family, Maddie on his other side with Chimney. Eddie shows Chris where the camera is, then looks over at Buck. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen Buck look that content, that happy.

Eddie looks up and sees the mistletoe. He makes a decision and doesn’t give himself the chance to back out.

The light on the camera is flashing faster. He knows he has only a second.

“Hey Buck,” he says, “ _te quiero.”_

He kisses Buck on the cheek.

Buck’s surprised laugh is Eddies favorite yet.

He gets a copy of the photo from Bobby. Hangs it in his living room, cropped to just their family, Maddie and Chimney.

\---

_Eddie would never stop talking, if it meant making Buck laugh. His entire face lights up. His eyes crinkle, and his mouth opens wide like keeping it closed would be a herculean feat._

_Bucks entire body lights up when he laughs, and Eddie basks in the warmth._

**Author's Note:**

> Title and idea based on the Beach Boys song Forever. Although to be fair I was thinking of the Full House version when I thought this up. This was also written while I was cups deep in holiday cheer last night so I apologize for any spelling or grammar errors I missed.


End file.
